Sure, Blame the Gun

On the media's love affair with the Santee school shooting.

National Review Online. March 9, 2001 9:05 a.m. More by Kopel on
school shootings.

Sure, blame the gun.

Never mind that many students in government schools are routinely tormented and attacked in ways that would constitute a
felony (if a school principal, rather than a ninth-grader, were
the victim). Often, schools are so big and impersonal that
administrators frequently don't even know there's a problem. Or
schools may be so sports-focused that athletes can get away with
anything.

The Santee murderer (we won't mention his name, because he doesn't
deserve the publicity he sought) lived with his father; his mother
lives on the other side of the continent. She is reported to have
called the young man earlier this year. The killer's former
girlfriend said that the killer craved his mother's attention, but
never got it. The mother is so minimally aware of her child that
she thought he played on all the sports teams. In fact, he played
on no team sports.

The killer's father apparently didn't realize his son had severe
social and emotional problems, didn't realize that maybe he
shouldn't have access to the keys to the gun safe.

But it's the gun's fault — couldn't possibly have anything to do
with parental responsibility.

The killer told an adult and several students he was going to
shoot up the school. They did nothing. Blame the gun.

California politicians have passed some of the toughest gun laws
in the nation. There's government permission and registration for
every gun transfer — even giving an old squirrel rifle to your
cousin. There are bans on hundreds of cosmetically incorrect
firearms; no permits to carry a handgun for lawful protection —
unless you've got special political connections; and laws
requiring guns to be locked up to keep them away from people like
the Santee murderer.

So why is California one of the most dangerous states in the
Union? Don't all those laws targeting law-abiding gun owners save
lives?

The problem with California gun laws in general, and California's
mandatory gun storage law in particular, is that they affect
precisely the wrong people.

If a father doesn't notice that his son, who is making death
threats to everyone who will listen, has swiped a revolver, a
mandatory gun-lock law like California's isn't going to stir him
into action.

On other hand, responsible parents who obey the law and teach
their children to do the same will obey the gun-lock law. These
people weren't going to commit crimes with their firearms. Because
of the gun-lock laws, these people end up becoming easy prey for
criminals.

In Merced, California, in August 2000, a pitchfork-wielding man
attacked and murdered Jessica Carpenter's 7-year-old brother and
9-year-old sister while their parents were not home. Jessica's
father kept a gun in the home that was, in accordance with
California law, locked in a safe. According to the family,
Jessica, age 14, is a very good shot, and had the gun not been
securely stored, Jessica would have been able to retrieve it and
use it to fend off the murderer.

The California mandatory gun-lock law helped kill two children in
Merced. That same law did nothing to save the
two children in Santee.

The Merced incident may have been sensational, but it is typical
of how laws like California's turn a family's home into a safe
zone for predators. A John Lott and John Whitley study compared
crime, accident, and suicide trends in states with California-type
laws, to trends in other states, while controlling for the effect
of numerous sociological variables. The study found no
statistically significant reduction in accidents involving
children or teenagers. Teenage gun suicide decreased, but not the
overall teenage-suicide rate.

There were also large increases in violent crime and homicide:

Rapes, robberies, and burglaries rise by 9, 11, and 6 percent,
respectively, as a result of safe storage laws…. The fifteen
states with safe storage laws would be expected to experience
168 more murders in the first full year that the law is in
effect. The number of murders peaks in the fourth full year at
380 murders…. During the five full years after the passage of
the safe storage laws, the fifteen states face an annual average
increase of 309 more murders, 3,860 more rapes, 24,650 more
robberies, and over 25,000 more aggravated assaults.

The crime increase was most severe in states like California,
where violation is a felony. But the victims of the California gun
lock law never made the national news. And did you read about the
four California children who were killed last week by a sociopath
who ran them down with an automobile? Of course not. The media's
interest in dead children depends mostly on whether those children
can be exploited to promote bigger government.

So don't expect a lot of editorial cartoons criticizing parents
who expect schools to raise their children. Don't expect too many
congressmen with 100% voting records from Handgun Control, Inc.,
to give a big speech worrying that so many parents spend less than
five minutes a day talking with their children. Blame the gun.

A small but terrifying subculture of America's children worship
the Columbine murderers. Do you think that Time regrets
putting the two killers on its cover? Do you think the national
media considers for a second how many lives might be saved by
simply refusing to broadcast the names of publicity-seeking mass
murderers? Do you think the media has slightest regret for the
saturation coverage given the Santee murder, and the
three copycat crimes that followed within 48 hours? Blame the
gun. Why exercise First Amendment rights in a responsible manner,
when it's easier to demonize the Second Amendment?

Upon hearing the shots at Santana High School, one student grabbed
a still camera and another grabbed a video camera to record the
carnage. No one tried to tackle the killer during his three
reloading breaks. Is it because the national media failed to tell
the story of the heroic high-school student who tackled the killer
in Springfield, Oregon, while the killer was reloading?

The killer became nationally famous. The hero didn't. The media
lost interest in him when they found that the hero's father
belonged to the NRA, and the family opposed gun control.

At Columbine, teacher Dave Sanders was justifiably lionized for
dying while trying to help students flee. Most people have never
heard about the adults who saved lives in Pearl, Mississippi, or
Edinboro, Pennsylvania, by confronting and subduing the rampaging
killers.

To the national media, civilians who take forceful action —
wrestling a shooter to the ground, or pointing a handgun at the
shooter's head — apparently teach the wrong lesson: that we're not
all helpless; that brave people can stop criminals. That's a
lesson which conflicts with the enraged helplessness promoted by
the "Million" Mom March and its mean-spirited message that the
only way for children to be safe is for the government to crack
down on law-abiding gun owners.

Sure, blame the gun. Keep on ducking real responsibility for
children's safety and moral education. Teach people to be afraid,
but not how to protect themselves. Keep on hating inanimate
objects and the law-abiding people who own them.

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